By Dan Gilgoff, CNN.com Religion Editor
(CNN) - President Barack Obama spoke in stark tones Wednesday
night about what he said were the positive contributions of
American Muslims in the years since the September 11, 2001,
attacks, in remarks that came a month before the 10th
anniversary of 9/11.
“Muslim Americans were innocent passengers on those planes,”
Obama said, referring to the aircraft that slammed into the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the September 11 attacks,
“including a young married couple looking forward to the birth
of their first child."
“They were workers in the Twin Towers - Americans by birth and
Americans by choice, immigrants who crossed the oceans to give
their children a better life,” he continued.
Obama was speaking at a White House Iftar dinner, held to
celebrate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The White House invited Muslim families who had relatives
working in the Twin Towers on 9/11 to the dinner, with the
president asking guests to stand and acknowledge them on
Wednesday night.
“Muslim Americans were first responders,” Obama said, recounting
events of September 11, “the former police cadet who raced to
the scene to help and then was lost when the towers collapsed
around him; the EMTs who evacuated so many to safety; the nurse
who tended to so many victims; the naval officer at the Pentagon
who rushed into the flames and pulled the injured to safety.”
“On this 10th anniversary, we honor these men and women for what
they are - American heroes.”
The president also thanked American Muslims for their military
service during “10 hard years of war.”
At another point in his remarks, Obama noted that American
Muslims serve as firefighters, police officers and
counterterrorism specialists. “Make no mistake,” Obama said.
“Muslim Americans help to keep us safe.”
At a time when Muslim Americans are facing stepped up scrutiny –
with congressional hearings on radicalization in U.S. Muslim
communities and legislatures across the country weighing bills
to outlaw Sharia, or Muslim law – Obama called for Americans to
treat Muslims with fairness and respect.
Obama called for “an America that doesn’t simply tolerate people
of different backgrounds and beliefs, but an America where we
are enriched by our diversity.”
“An America where we treat one another with respect and with
dignity,” he continued, “remembering that here in the United
States there is no ‘them’ or ‘us;’ it’s just us.”
Iftar dinners are held during Ramadan to break the daily fast.
President Bill Clinton started the tradition of such dinners at
the White House, with George W. Bush and Obama continuing it